Yasir Shah’s triple strike left England struggling to survive in the fourth test on 88-4 at stumps Saturday after Younis Khan’s double century gave Pakistan a first-innings lead of 214 runs.
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London-At the age of 38, and in the final Test of a tour in which most sage judges feared that his imperious talents were beginning to fade, Younis Khan rolled back the years in stunning fashion on the third afternoon at the Kia Oval, crushing England’s hopes of a slender first-innings deficit with a brilliant 218.
The outcome was that, despite the six wickets shared by Finn and Chris Woakes, England began their second innings under extreme pressure – and they soon ran into a rampant Yasir Shah (three for 15). Live coverage of day four begins at 10.30am on Sunday on Sky Sports 2 after Cricket Writers on TV.
Victory would earn Pakistan a 2-2 series draw and maintain their hopes of moving to the top of the International Cricket Council Test rankings. He is the most runs scorer in current players as well.
Asked where this innings ranked among his 32 Test centuries, Younis said: “It must be at the top”.
But before and after that he and Pakistan dealt with everything England threw at them with relative ease on a track that still had some pace and bounce in it for the bowlers.
“The evening session hurt us as a team”, he said.
Saturday saw him fall lbw for 12 to Shah’s sixth ball of the day, with England wasting a review in the process.
England could have been five down but Gary Balance survived a review off the bowling of Yasir Shah.
Doubts remain over the futures of Alex Hales and James Vince – the former making 12 to cap a lamentable Test and the latter averaging 19.27 from his first global summer after a third-ball duck – but Finn naturally talked up their talents.
With averages of 18 and 19 in this series the selectors will now surely be looking for better options before they leave for the next big battles in Bangladesh and India.
Vince’s 158 runs at 22.57 this series left his Test future open to question.
Just as Asad Shafiq had done following his fine 109 on Friday, Younus dedicated his innings to Pakistan batting great Hanif Mohammad, who died aged 81 on Thursday.
Woakes boosted England’s spirits late in the day with two wickets in an over. By the end of 15 overs, England were placed at 36 for one with Alex Hales (12) and Joe Root (39) doing the grinding work.
The first will be the most satisfying because Hales has behaved churlishly towards Yasir and the umpires ever since he disputed his catch in the first innings and lost 15 per cent of his match fee for taking issue with Joel Wilson.
Younis completed his double hundred in style when he advanced down the pitch to drive Ali for six.
Amir, who took 24 balls to get off the mark, ended with a Test-best 39 that frustrated England.
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He walked off to a standing ovation from the Oval crowd after batting for more than seven-and-a-half hours in a 308-ball innings featuring 31 fours and four sixes.
